MaryJane F. Eischen ‘20 (R)

MaryJane Eischen is a Studio Art major with a double concentration in Graphic Design and Photography, and a double minor in Art History and Digital Humanities. Alongside Nicole Wallin, she presented Japanese Prints @ St. Kate’s at the Sister Seraphim Gibbons Undergraduate Research Symposium in 2019. MaryJane was the recipient of the 2018 Peter Lupori Scholarship, and has held her own photography exhibition titled Bee-utiful Lives in 2017. She has had multiple artworks published in the St. Catherine University art and literary magazine Ariston, and designed the 2019 edition. Her art involves the creation of fantastical worlds that blur the line between reality and fantasy. In the future, MaryJane hopes to work in graphic design and illustration, and is considering pursuing a Master’s level education after graduation.


Nicole Wallin ‘19 (L)

Nicole Wallin is an English major with minors in Studio Art and Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).  Her work at St. Catherine University—both in the classroom and in her employment—has augmented her interest in cross-cultural art and world-wide communication. This can be seen clearly in her most recent work being the didactic labels for From Flowers to Warriors and Nostalgic Femininity. In addition to writing these labels, Nicole also presented about the show’s prints at the Sister Seraphim Gibbons Undergraduate Research Symposium. She plans to finish her college career with an ESL teaching internship in Spain following her certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language.


Christina M. Spiker, Ph.D. (M)

Christina M. Spiker is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at St. Catherine University from 2016 to 2019. She received her Ph.D. in Visual Studies from the University of California, Irvine with a specialization in modern Japanese art and visual culture. Since coming to St. Catherine University, Christina’s work has more consciously engaged with representations of gender in Japan. She published “‘Civilized’ Men and ‘Superstitious’ Women: Visualizing the Hokkaido Ainu in Isabella Bird’s Unbeaten Tracks, 1880” in Gender, Continuity, and the Shaping of Modernity in the Arts of East Asia, 16th-20th Centuries, edited by Lara Blanchard and Kristen Chiem (Brill, 2017). She has also presented on a range of topics at conferences and symposia in the United States and Japan such as College Art Association, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, American Historical Association, Asian Studies Conference Japan, Midwest Conference for Asian Affairs, and the Art Historians of the Twin Cities Symposium. In Fall 2019, Christina will move on to a new position as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.